Name: Kalindi Izzard
Grade: Year 11
Age: 17 Years
School: Coffs Harbour High School
Hometown and State: Coffs Harbour, New South Wales
LIFTING US UP – How can women and girls empower each other and their communities in times of uncertainty and change?
We wake up, our hearts and heads pounding in unison. Danger pervades everything, touching our skin and lurking beyond. Endowed with gifts and wisdom, we hold each other’s hand through this world, wrestling with demons and lying in clover. This world is not made for strong women. They reduce us at every turn, objectify us, ignore us, punish us and use us. Rising up, we will take flight. We will not let them define our characters, we will not let them bend us so that we fit in their tiny boxes. We are Emma Watson. We are Poh Ling Yeow. We are Turia Pitt. We are Greta Thunberg. We are Susan Carland. We are women. And they will not douse our flame.
As women, we are faced with uncertainty and change from the moment we are born. It is not something unfamiliar, it is not something we cannot handle. So deeply is it etched into the fabric of our society, so entrenched are the societal norms and expectations that infuse the space around us. The philosopher Ivan Illich said, ‘If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story’. A story that will lift us up, that will empower our sisters, our mothers, our daughters, our communities, our societies. A new story, one that is seldom heard. Let women create their own stories, so loud that we must listen. This is what we will do. We will tell the stories we were never told, we will sing their names and we won’t stop until we are heard.
As a young woman in Coffs Harbour, I live in a small regional community that needs young women in leadership. We need to encourage local role models, build programs for young women that engage and inspire them to achieve their goals. As Marian Wright Edelman, a great civil rights activist said: ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’. Regional areas, lower socio-economic areas require a new generation of educated, equipped women to lead change. We need a new story that highlights our strength and wisdom. My dream is for a community that encourages girls of all ages, backgrounds and cultures to be all they can be in uncertain times.
Emma Watson, sexualised from 14 by the media, now stands at the front of the HeforShe movement uniting girls and boys. We will sing their names. Poh Ling Yeow who struggled in her childhood as a ‘migrant kid’ after moving to Australia, now strives to be the role model she never had. Turia Pitt, suffered extreme burns to 65% of her body in an out of control grass fire, now inspires others to achieve incredible things. We will sing their names. Greta Thurnburg, a young girl with Aspergers syndrome, founder of the School Strike for Climate movement. Susan Carland who sought comfort from ballet to cope with her parents’ divorce, and is now an author, feminist and academic with a goal to help Muslim women in Australia. We will sing their names.
We can turn these times of uncertainty and change into a new movement. We can use these times as inspiration to be the push that transforms a community. It’s never too late to hold hands and stick together. Through support groups, resilience programs, claiming the night, rejecting violence, encouraging compassion and collecting wisdom from inspiring women, we will imagine something else. It’s never too late to tell a new story. We must tell a new story.
This Power Trip is kindly being sponsored by AgriFutures Australia